Volume 19, Number 51
Serving Durham, Middlefield and Rockfall
www.TownTimes.com
Friday, April 11, 2014
River needs ‘doctoring’ but still a great regional resource Waterway will be stocked with more than 3,500 trout this month By Diana Carr
Special to Town Times
Unlike the Mississippi River, the Coginchaug River has not been given top billing in a song. But it can borrow some of the lyrics from Ol’ Man River, because it also “keeps on rollin’ along.” The river rolls along for 16.1 miles, with a watershed of 39 square miles, through Guilford, Durham, and Middlefield, before meeting the Mattabesset River in Middletown, and is one of
the few rivers in the area that flows from south to north. The name “Coginchaug” comes from the local Native American name for the Durham area, and it was the original name for the town. It means “The Great Swamp,” and is a reference to the meadows found in the central part of the town. Information from the files of the Connecticut River Coastal Conservation District states that the Coginchaug River is on the state’s Impaired Waters List, due to its elevated levels of E.coli bacteria. This type of bacteria is an indicaSee River / Page 18
So far, sparse public comments on school budget By Mark Dionne Town Times
In advance of the Board of Education’s April 10 public hearing on the proposed 2014-2015 school budget, public comment regarding that budget has been steady at BOE meetings but much less significant, so far, than in past years. While BOE meetings, since the initial budget reveal on Feb. 12, have been relatively well-attended and have all featured public comment, there have been no more than a handful of speakers at each meeting. If there has been a unifying theme to the public comment, it has been about the overall size of the budget increase —1.74 percent —and class sizes. “This budget is the lean-
Easy access to the Coginchaug River is important for recreational use of the waterway. | (Photo by Diana Carr.)
Library offers strategies to help kids read By Adam Stuhlman Special to Town Times
est that I’ve seen presented the first time around that I can recall ... I think it’s very lean and most people who have been following this for years would agree,” said Jennifer Wells DiPentima, of Durham, on Feb. 26. The 2013-2014 school budget was initially proposed with a 4.39 percent increase and was cut through a series of BOE meetings to a budget with a 1.42 percent increase. That budget passed at the first referendum. Oanh Stephan, of Durham, told the BOE, also on Feb. 26, that she was “really concerned after hearing the results of the utilization study and also looking at the proposed budget that we are moving See Budger / Page 19
Christine Michaud , director of Children’s Services at Durham Public Library, | (Photo by Adam Stuhlman.)
Some parents in Durham say they have a strong interest when it comes to preparing their pre-kindergarten children to learn how to read. They now have their chance. April 3, the Durham Public Library hosted “Every Child Ready to Read,” a program that was started by the Public Library Association and the Association for Library Service to Children. The program will run again on Saturday, April 5, at 2 p.m. The program, which was taught by Christine Michaud, head of Children’s Services for the library, is built around helping children through reading, writing, talking, singing, and playing with them-areas that Michaud said are really important. Michaud was awarded a $3,000 grant from the See Library / Page 3